I. VAMA MARGA Foundations Of The Left-Hand Path - staticfly.net

less familiar term algolagnia, a modern neologism constructed by Dr. Albert
Schrenk-Notzing from the Greek algos (pain) and lagneia (lust). In contrast
to the rather vague sadomasochism, the more precise concept of pain/lust
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cannot be misconstrued as anything other than an erotic activity. Algolagnia
neatly sidesteps the entire muddle of literary and psychiatric symbolism that
sadomasochism conjures, allowing the sex magician to constructively view
the art of sexual pain through fresh eyes. The utilization of erotically charged
pain in magical and religious rites predates both de Sade and Sacher-Masoch
by millennia, and the magician who rejects the strictly time and culturedetermined
phrase "sadomasochism" for a more eternal understanding of this
initiatory activity can approach such work from a purer perspective. For those
of you who have previously been content to describe your proclivities as
sadomasochistic, now you know that you were actually an algolagniac all
along.
Left-Hand Path Dominance And Submission
Some of our readers may be experimenting with this branch of sex magic for
the first time, while others may already have a great deal of experience in
such workings. In either case, it is necessary to first isolate the essential
magical characteristics of the sexual personae most commonly assumed
during the rites of pain/lust. Although the specific techniques used in the rite
differ from the classic Vama Marga union, the dominant and submissive are
really only incarnating non-traditional manifestations of the contrasexual
Shiva/Shakti forces.
If Shiva is consciousness, and Shakti is that consciousness made
visible, as Tantra teaches, the obedient submissive (of either sex) might also
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be a form of Shakti, embodying the thoughts of his/her dominant in the
physical world. Alternately, the male or female dominant may represent the.
Shakti force, active in contrast to the submissive's Shiva-like immobility: In
either case, left-hand path dominance and submission is based on an
awareness that the seemingly opposite forces are actually mysteriously
united, transcending the apparent duality. In the mystical conjunction of
Shiva and Shakti, the dominant knows that the slave's flesh being tormented
is really his/her own. And the slave knows that every cruelty suffered at the
dominant's hands originates in his/her own mind.
Each of these roles offer unique possibilities for the accomplishment
of specific magical desires, and need to be examined in further depth than the
superficial stereotyping of popular imagery allows. The external relations of
master and slave, submissive and dominant, would appear at first to be one of
the most easily understandable manifestations of opposite polarities.
However, even in thc non-magical orchestration of dominant and
submissive sexual energies, great psychological complexity can arise. This
complexity is multiplied incomparably once the destabilizing influence of
left-hand path magic is brought into the equation. Therefore, an understanding
of the underlying magical theory of magical dominance and submission is
required before entering the volatile arena of this extreme form of erotic
magic.
The advantages accessible to the dominant magician are perhaps
more immediately clear-cut than those available to the submissive. In most
cases, the master/mistress is the god or goddess whose will rules absolutely
over the entire magical working. Now, a magician in a non-sexual working
commonly manipulates some inert symbolic material in the microcosm to
effect changes in the macrocosm. Let us say that he or she creates a magical
sigil distilling the desire in the case of some abstract aspiration. Perhaps, to
use an easily grasped example, a standard issue voodoo doll is crafted that
stands in for the external force the magician wishes to influence. In typical
ceremonial magic, the entire panoply of symbolic dagger, chalice, candle,